Toncoin Hits All-Time High Price, Flipping Cardano Out of Top 10

There’s a new entrant in the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market cap following Toncoin’s recent surge—and it’s flipped Cardano in the process.

Toncoin (TON), the token of The Open Network, is now the 10th most valuable cryptocurrency in the world according to data from CoinGecko, jumping 12% over the last day to a current price of $6.65. It’s also up 32% over the last seven days, and 132% in the past month.

TON jumped even higher to a new all-time high price of $7.06 earlier Tuesday. But the rise of the network closely associated with Telegram has pushed Cardano out of the top 10.

According to CoinGecko, TON now has a market cap of over $23 billion, making it the 10th most valuable cryptocurrency in the world, while Cardano (ADA) fell to 11th at just over $21 billion. Cardano is down 2.1% on the day at a current price of about $0.60.

The Open Network was originally founded in 2018 by messaging app giant Telegram as the Telegram Open Network, but the firm abandoned the project following regulatory scrutiny from the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Community developers continued to build out the network without Telegram’s official involvement. Gradually, Telegram has embraced the network again, which may be helping to fuel its rise over the past several months.

A self-custody TON wallet was launched for Telegram last fall, and then in February, Telegram said that it would share half of ad revenue with channel owners—and pay it out exclusively in TON. Just last week, Telegram said it would accept payments for advertising in TON, too.

And there are buzzy things happening on the chain, too. Telegram-based game Notcoin amassed 35 million players over the last few months and is launching its NOT token on the chain on or around April 20 to reward users. The TON Foundation also recently announced a $115 million rewards and incentives push to draw users to the network.

On Tuesday, the TON Foundation announced that it has partnered with HumanCode, a palm-based verification startup, to incentivize adoption of its “proof of personhood” protocol by offering 1 million TON (about $6.5 million worth at present) in incentives.